YU Seminar Reveals Secrets of the Dead Sea Scrolls

Seminar at YU Museum on June 8 will feature leading scholars on ancient scrolls found in Judea from Second Temple period.

By Ari Yashar

First Publish: 5/29/2014, 9:52 PM

Dead Sea Scrolls

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Yeshiva University (YU) will host its second annual Dead Sea Scrolls Seminar in New York on June 8. The event, which aims to shed light on the ancient scrolls, will be held at the YU Museum.

The seminar will feature lectures from prominent scholars on topics relating to the scrolls, which include 972 documents that survived for over 2,000 years in the Qumran area of Judea until being discovered between the years 1947 and 1956. They are considered one of the most important archaeological finds of the 20th century.

In addition to a very early copy of the Book of Deuteronomy, which contains the Ten Commandments, the scrolls include over 200 non-Biblical texts shedding light on Jewish practices during the late Second Temple period (200 BCE - 70 CE).

Lecturers at the event will include Dr. Jeffrey Garcia of Nyack College, Dr. Ari J. Mermelstein and Dr. Moshe J. Bernstein of YU, and Dr. Azzan Yadin-Israel of Rutgers University.

"Yeshiva University has several Dead Sea Scrolls scholars on its faculty and this has enabled the YU Dead Sea Scrolls Seminar to become a meeting place for scholars of the Scrolls and related Second Temple literature,” said Dr. Lawrence Schiffman, vice provost for undergraduate education at YU and a noted expert in the area.

“The upcoming mini-conference is a chance for scholars and the wider public to join together in sampling the best of scholarship in this field," added Schiffman.

After the lectures, guests will be able to tour the YU Museum exhibition “Modeling the Synagogue: From Dura to Touro,” featuring seven scale models of historic synagogues.

The event will be held on June 8 from 1-4 p.m. at the YU Museum, 15 West 16th Street.